A fuel cell stack is a power generating device which generates electric energy through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in fuel cells, and may be employed in a fuel cell vehicle.
The fuel cell stack is formed by an electricity generating assembly, in which fuel cells (unit cells) are arranged. The fuel cell has a configuration in which separating plates are disposed at both sides of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), with the MEA interposed therebetween. The fuel cells may be fastened through an end plate and a fastening means in a pressurized state.
The aforementioned fuel cell stack may be manufactured by a process of stacking fuel cells one by one, pressurizing the stacked fuel cells with a press while the fuel cells are disposed between upper and lower end plates, and fastening the end plate through the fastening means.
In the related art, a fuel cell stack is manufactured by manually and collectively stacking fuel cells through a predetermined guide mechanism, or dividing and stacking the fuel cells in a unit of a small module and manually stacking the fuel cells in the unit of the small module.
Accordingly, according to the related art, a general cycle time including stacking, pressurizing, and fastening of the fuel cells may be disadvantageous, and reliability in a given stack level of the fuel cells may be decreased.
In addition, in order to manufacture a fuel cell stack, a supply and an examination of respective components configuring the fuel cells, a stack method satisfying handling and securing a stack degree for the components, and an air-tightness maintenance and stack fastening process by pressurizing the fuel cells is also included.
However, in the related art, the aforementioned processes are manually performed and productivity may decrease due to an increase in a required time for assembling the fuel cell stack, and a quality of the fuel cell stack may decrease because a stack degree of the fuel cells cannot be guaranteed.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.